The Fulton County Prosecutor’s Office was working Friday to develop a swift legal response to explain why the cellphone data unearthed by Donald Trump’s lawyers does not undermine the nation’s values. Timeline given by Prosecutor Fani Willis On when his relationship with Special Counsel Nathan Wade began.
Trump’s lawyers on Friday submitted an analysis of Wade’s phone and cell phone records as part of a motion to disqualify prosecutor Fani Willis and her office from prosecuting the case. President Trump, 2020 Georgia election interference scandal. The data shows Wade was at the apartment complex where Willis lived from late night until early morning on September 11 and September 12, 2021, and November 29 and November 30 of the same year. Willis confirmed the relationship Wade and Willis testified under oath last week that their romantic relationship began in early 2022 after Willis hired Wade to work on his Georgia election case.
A person close to Mr. Willis said lawyers in his office are trying to challenge the interpretation of the data presented by Mr. Trump’s lawyers. If the data analysis proves accurate, it could provide strong evidence that Wade and Willis misled the court about when their relationship began.
The Trump team’s analysis was conducted by a private investigator who used a geofencing analysis tool called CellHawk, which investigators call the “gold standard” for analyzing cell phone records.
The defense team in the case alleges that Willis entered into fraudulent deals with Wade during their relationship, including him on the prosecution team and paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars so that the two could benefit financially. is trying to prove.
Sources said on Friday that attorneys for the prosecutor’s office were searching for their own expert witnesses who could refute the claims of Trump’s lawyers. Their hope is to submit a response as early as Friday or this weekend.
“The interpretation of the data is not what you think it is,” a source told CBS News.
Although prosecutors’ attorneys are not expected to argue that Wade did not visit the condo multiple times — in fact, both Wade and Willis have testified that Willis was there 10 times. –But he would argue that the relationship has not developed into an illicit one. The romance between them.
Sources also said it was not unusual for Willis to hold work meetings at the condo. Wade did not work in the prosecutor’s office until November 2021, but sources say he was part of her “kitchen cabinet” before then. At one meeting, Mr. Wade was participating in a discussion about the Atlanta spa shootings in which eight people were allegedly shot and killed by a deranged 21-year-old gunman, officials said.
At the end of a two-day hearing last week, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee asked defense attorneys whether they had any other witnesses or evidence they planned to introduce. Only Trump’s lawyer, Stephen Sadow, did so. He informed McAfee that the defense had obtained cell phone records and wanted them to be part of the record. He said the records related to questioning Mr. Wade about visits to the apartment complex and spanned the period from February to November 2021.
“Based on our preliminary investigation, we would like to reopen and present the records so that someone can explain what they mean,” Sadow said.
Judge McAfee took a noncommittal attitude. However, if the prosecutor’s office presents evidence that refutes the cell phone data brought up by Sadow, McAfee is likely to extend the evidentiary hearing rather than proceed immediately with closing arguments.
If that happens, both sides will argue about the reliability of the data and which interpretation is correct. But a key question that could decide Willis’ fate in the case is whether the judge believes the Fulton County Attorney’s Office misled the court, legal experts say.
Willis’ most dedicated defenders continue to rally to her side. Norman Eisen, a lawyer and former Obama administration ethics leader, questioned the reliability of cell phone data and defense tactics in an interview with CBS News.
“This type of data is unreliable, as evidenced by similar failures in the 2020 Mule incident,” Eisen said. False claims by election deniers In 2020, Dropbox was used to fraudulently vote. Additionally, Eisen said the issue should have been raised sooner by Willis’ lawyers “when they could have verified it.” Still, Judge Eisen acknowledged that “as a general rule, judges are always concerned about the integrity of the judge before them,” and noted that in this case, the defense “wanted a bridge too far.” “We are trying to cross a bridge that is on unstable foundations.”
